"Every time you spend money, you're casting a vote for the kind of world you want."

Month: October 2017

Yesterday I turned 27 and surprisingly did it rather respectably. The weekend started with champagne breakfast, leading to a stop-over in Cheltenham, a lovely bubble bath (don’t have that luxury at home), beer and fried chicken, finally finished reading Frankenstein, then a walk up Malvern Hills, and ended with noodles, Blue Planet II and Stranger Things.

But turning 27 and having a chilled-ish weekend gave me time to think of the ’27 Club’ and those iconic stars that died way way way too young. So in homage, here is my ‘27 club mixtape‘ which you can listen to and follow on Spotify:

October is Fairtrade month, so here are five of my Fairtrade favourites:

Bananas – I have at least one banana a day, they couldn’t NOT be top of my list. Always make sure they are organic AND Fairtrade (good for the worker and the environment).

Jyoti Fair Works – Earlier this year I bought a beautiful skirt from Jyoti who are a German-Indian fair fashion label. Seriously check them out because their designs are great and they do some amazing stuff with their workers and supply-chain.

Fashion these days is fast, we are buying and chucking away clothes more than ever. Most clothes that are bought are made unethically, using unsustainable materials, tonnes of water and energy and producing lots of waste. They are cheap and disposable.

I started an ethical transition with my wardrobe last December, and this autumn I’m having another major clear out because I still have way too many clothes that I really do not need.

In the clean out process I was cut throat, if I couldn’t see myself wearing it at least 30 times it was gone. This is called the 30 wear challenge. The other weekend I dropped four bags off to charity shops and I’m selling some stuff on Depop. I thought I was doing alright at it, until… Labour Behind the Label asked if I would like to join their challenge…

Every year Labour Behind the Label host the six item challenge in Lent which is designed to test our reliance on fast fashion and raise funds to help garment workers. Basically the idea is simple – you select six items of clothing from your wardrobe and pledge to wear only these every day for six weeks. Crikey!

They tell me not to panic and that you can have unlimited access to underwear, accessories, footwear and sportswear. But your main items of clothing – dresses, trousers, tops, skirts, jumpers, shirts or cardigans – must remain the same throughout.

I don’t know if I can do it? Can I really dedicate six weeks to wearing just six items of clothing? So this is where I need your help, I’m down for doing it, but only if some of you will do it with me! So… any takers?!

Feminism Up is a monthly online newsletter that aims to encourage discussion around sexism and inequality. It is ran by Kath at Binging on Beetroot and I was recently very honoured to be asked to write an article for it.

The newsletter comes out on the 1st of every month and I’m sure November’s issue will not disappoint. It would be amazing if you could subscribe to the newsletter. To do it, head here.

Short and sweet post today, but with the #metoo movement I felt it was relevant to share and it is something I feel very passionate about.

Whether you are a Russel Brand fan or not, this book really does create awareness on the issues around addiction and the struggles faced on the road to recovery.

You may think; “this book isn’t for me, I’m not an addict, I don’t drink too much, I don’t do drugs…” But as I found reading this book, addiction isn’t just those classic clichés.

Do you find yourself thinking, if I just buy this, if I just eat this, if I just do this I’ll be happy? Do you find yourself constantly looking at your phone? Do you wake up and instantly check Facebook or Instagram to see how many likes you have? Do you sit and eat a whole pack of biscuits without being hungry? Do you constantly want to be thiner, younger, richer? Do you do these things and then loathe what you did afterwards, but then still continue to do the same thing?

This is also addiction. Russel Brand, in his flouncy language and witty stories tells this tale well. He also guides you through the 12 steps to recovery. Whether you end up following the book to help you through your personal problems (did you really EVER expect to take advise from Russel Brand?!), or read it so you can empathise better and help those affected by addiction, or whether you just read it as a fun but thoughtful read.

Wow, September really did fly over. I cannot believe a whole month has gone by since my last post. We’re now into October, and some crazy people have even started talking about the ‘C’ word (local Co-op officially have mince pies on their shelves)!

At the start of September I visited London where I ate lots of scrummy food and supported Team Shearer in the charity football match Game 4 Grenfell.

I then walked 25 miles along Hadrian’s Wall, my final challenge this year raising money for Labour Behind the Label. It was great meeting new people, working as a team and well and truly blowing the cobwebs off in the Northumberland air.

Finally my long-awaited holiday to Dubrovnik arrived.

Fully rejuvenated, I’m now ready to throw myself back into blogging.

As October is Fairtrade month and hosts Anti-Slavery Day I’ll be focusing on these areas for this months posts. If you have anything you specifically would like me to cover, please let me know.